Victims of Manipulation
by Mistress of the Wolf Clan
Summary: A somewhat antinaruhina from Hinata's POV. Antisakura. Oneshot, possible continuation if I get enough reviews.
1. In the Beginning

I swallowed hard, trying to breathe past the growing lump in my throat, barely able to breath, the pain in my chest getting worse by the second. I stared out at the pathway in front of me, my hands shaking.

There, standing in the pale moonlight, looking like some angel sent from heaven, was the bane of my existence. _"Angel"_ I scoffed. That was what everyone called her. An angel they said, a goddess, the Blossom of Konoha, the great apprentice of the wondrous Tsunade-hime. A necessity to her village, a genius medic-nin who would revolutionize the field of medicine, not to mention a 'beauty the likes of which the world has never seen', to quote many young men.

But not to all. To me, as she stood in the lunar glow, her petal pink hair shining lightly and her pale green dress, she was an enemy. A demon straight from the pits of hell, a creature of pure spite, who's only goal in life seemed to be breaking me down into nothing.

We had once been friends: both smart, yet lacking in natural talent or strength, both longing after a man it seemed we could not obtain. That isn't to say we had our differences, we did. Where she was loud and rambunctious, I was quite and shy. While she expressed her albeit obsessive feelings, I hid and watched, staying silent for years. For all our different qualities, we were good friends. Until _he _came along.

We were all teenagers when he came, around sixteen and seventeen years old for the most part. His name was Gekido. Arashi Gekido. He was handsome, I admit. With long black hair and eyes the color of sapphires, he was quickly as popular with all the women of the town, no matter what their age. Even the men admired him, praising his strength and skill, begging him to teach them something, _anything_. But he wanted nothing to do with any of the villagers. Except one: a slender, pretty girl with green eyes and hair the color of a spring cherry blossom. A girl who's name was Haruno Sakura.

Gekido 'wanted her' the villagers said. He was going to try and 'win her hand' they thought. But they were wrong. Oh Kami were they wrong…

Gekido won all right, as sure as the sun rises in the morning. But it was not Sakura's heart he won, but her apprenticeship. He did not, however, teach her ninjutsu, jujitsu or any other shinobi art as one would expect. No, it was much worse than that, for he used his status as a wandering shinobi only as an alibi, a cover-up. Underneath the mysterious persona and calm façade, Arashi Gekido was a manipulator of people. A con artist some would call him. He did what he wanted, when he wanted, hurt who he wanted and no one did anything to stop him. They saw him as perfect, incapable of ill actions. Haruno Sakura, with her unusual hair color and bubbly attitude intrigued him, and so he made her his project, spending half a year teaching her his art.

It was just a few days after Sakura's seventeenth birthday that Gekido deemed her a success and took his leave of the Hidden Village of the Leaf. All was calm and peaceful for about a month after Gekido left, and it seemed as if everything was going to stay as it had been before his arrival. But that was not to be. The first incident was during the summer festival, when everyone was busy with the joyous gathering. It was then that Sakura made her move. No one knows quite how she did it, and personally I would rather not know at all, but Haruno Sakura finally claimed the last Konoha Uchiha, Sasuke, as her own. The last anyone saw of her for the rest of the festival was when she exited the town square, heading in the direction of her apartment. With the expressionless Sasuke close in tow.

The days turned to weeks and the weeks melted into months as the winter season grew closer, and all the time Sakura all but kept the youngest Uchiha on a leash. She clearly enjoyed the power of actually catching and keeping in her grasp what evaded her for so long. But like all those who acquire a great power over people, she soon tired of having Sasuke as her boy toy, and so she moved on to another.

As time went on, Sakura began finding great pleasure in not only snagging some helpless man as her plaything, but taking other girls' boyfriends and making them her own. Although she managed to rip apart Shikamaru and Ino, Kiba and TenTen and even Shino and his girlfriend Kimura, couples who seemed to be invincible, I never feared that she would target the man I loved and had finally expressed my feelings to. I told myself that after all, didn't she think of him as just an annoyance? The loudmouthed blonde who irritated her to no end? And I still believed that...well, at least until tonight that is.

My heart sped up as I saw another figure step onto the path. Although he was still cloaked in shadows, I could see the shape of his face, the outline of his broad shoulders and recognize the self-confident air he held about him, and even though I wished with all my heart that I was wrong, I knew in my hear that the man who stepped into the moonlight a second later was none other than my hero, my inspiration, my one true love. Uzumaki Naruto.

My lower lip trembled, though I steeled myself against the tears that longed to escape. I shot my fist out, punching a nearby tree and leaving gouges on my knuckles. I ignored the feeling of blood running down my fingers and rose quietly from where I had been crouching. I took a few steps backwards, eyes still on the couple who were now embracing, then turned and ran. I ran faster then I ever had, pumping chakra into my legs in a constant stream, the thick soles on my boots grabbing the earth, racing towards the large wooden doors that marked Konoha's entrance. I paused before them, but only long enough to motion to the chunin guarding it to let me pass. He did so and I leapt through the gap as soon as it was large enough.

I had no pack, but I didn't need one. I ran all night, finally becoming exhausted a little while before dawn. I had left the border of the Fire country somewhere around midnight and, judging by the amount of mist surrounding me, was in the Water country and nearing the village of the Mist. I was completely out of chakra and could go on no longer. The last thing I though before the darkness consumed me was whether I should had stayed and fought for him…

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Wow, it's done! But before you leave, I want you to do one thing. **REVIEW!!!!!** As long as you keep reviewing, I'll keep writing. But once you stop, I'll stop giving you updates. I know the chapters are short, but it takes me at least 10 times as long to write the damn thing as it does for you to read it, so cut me some slack please w

Also, if you have any suggestions, you can email me at ne!


	2. Realizations

Chapter two is up!! Yosh! You might have noticed that I in fact do NOT have 20 reviews. In reality, I only have 3! But since the few who _did _comment loved the story so much, I am continuing it!

I will use some Japanese throughout the story, so I will add translations of the new words introduced in each chapter at the end of that chapter. Words that you might not remember but were in previous chapters will not be listed again, because after a while the list gets really long and it's a pain to deal with. Oh, and I don't own Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, etc, etc, blah blah blah. If I did, I'd be a rich biotch and living on my own private island in the San Juan Islands. And now, without further ado, read on!

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Victims of Manipulation

Chapter Two: Realizations

I awoke to the usual sounds of morning in the forest. Small birds called out from the branches of the tall pines surrounding me, their voices clear but their locations obscured by the thick mist. I blinked slowly, the brightness of the grey morning hurting my eyes and causing my vision to blur slightly while I grew accustomed to the light. Once I regained the ability to see properly I sat up, slowly because I was so stiff. It seemed that every muscle in my body was sore, feeling like I had been beaten repeatedly. It was then that I realized how cold I was. I looked down at myself. My clothes were almost soaked through, and my long raven hair was plastered wetly to my neck and face. _'It must have been a combination of the mist and dew…or maybe it rained last night' _I thought, _'In any case, I need to get warm'. _

I got to my knees and, ignoring my protesting muscles, stood up and stretched. I hurt, but I would be worried if I didn't after pushing myself so much. Besides, I'd had worse. Feeling more relaxed, I walked around the clearing I had apparently passed out in last night, looking for some dry wood to make a fire. There wasn't any. I made a small noise of frustration before settling down on a somewhat-but-not-really dry log to think things through.

The first question at hand was my location, and that was an easy one to answer. From the look of forest surrounding me, I would say that I was in the Water country, somewhere in the vicinity of the Hidden Mist village. This in turn meant that I was a good distance from Konoha. I estimated that it would take me about two days to walk back. That is, however, **if** I went back. At that thought I sighed. It had been cowardly to run away, but at the moment I hadn't known what else to do. I knew that I had to go back to the village soon, but that didn't mean I wanted to, just the opposite in fact. I feared what I would find upon my arrival.

Naruto had said he loved me, but would he stay true to his words or leap into Sakura's arms like the rest of the boys? The pink-haired Haruno may not have been the best kunoichi, but she was a woman, and a beautiful one at that. I sighed. Maybe that was it, maybe I wasn't pretty enough for Naruto, maybe I was too plain.

I knew that wasn't true though. With my pale violet eyes and midnight black, hip-length hair, I was anything but plain. I smile softly, remembering all the times Neji had chased different suitors away. He can be very overprotective at times, but it's only because he sees me more as his sister than his cousin. He had gotten over his dislike of the main house a while back and we became very close. My thoughts go back to Naruto and my smile fades into a frown. '_No, Naruto couldn't have changed his mind because of my appearance, there has to be something more'._

And that's when it hit me. The great Uzumaki Naruto was not one to be swayed simply by a pretty girl's feminine charms. No, there was more to this than I had originally though, much more. There had to be something else that Sakura was doing, or saying, to make the men of the village her playthings. Something was definitely awry, and I was determined to find out. No one steals or tries to steal my man and gets away with it, and I mean **no one.**

Nodding once to myself, I stood up and straightened my shirt. I guessed that it was around noon by the sun's position as it glowed weakly through the stubborn mist, which meant that I had been resting for just long enough to regain enough chakra to run as fast as I would need to reach Konoha by nightfall. I took a deep breath and got my bearings, then took off in the direction of home.

As I ran I went over what I might do once I arrived back to the village but, unable to decide, I dropped that train of thought in favor of concentrating on conserving my chakra. It was going to be a long trek, and I needed all the energy I have.

_- - Some Time Later - -_

It was about two hours past sunset when I finally reached the gates leading into Konoha. I looked up the wall and called out to the sentry. "H-hello?" I steadied my voice before continuing, "Could you please open the gate for me?" A chunin boy with hair in a spiky ponytail stuck his head over the edge and peered down at me. "Ah! Konbanwa Hinata-san!" he said, a wide grin on his face. I smiled tiredly back at him. "Anata ni mo, Konohamaru-kun. The gate please." He nodded and disappeared behind the wall, though I could hear him hurrying down the steps, tripping a few times before the noise stopped and the door creaked open enough to allow me to slip through.

Once I was safely inside, Konohamaru closed the gate and turned back to me. "Where've you been Hinata-san? Even Naruto-niisan said he didn't know where you were." The look of concern in the younger boy's eyes made me smile. "I was…thinking. I needed some time to myself so I decided the best way to do that was to get out of town for a while. I camped out." It wasn't a total lie, but it certainly wasn't the whole truth. I stifled a yawn and gave Konohamaru an apologetic look. "Sorry Konohamaru-kun, but I am very tired and need to go home and rest", I said. He shrugged and smiled reassuringly at me. "No problem. I should be getting back to my post anyway", he gestured behind him at the gate. I turned around and waved, "Oyasumi Konohamaru-kun". He waved back, "Oyasumi nasai, Hinata-san".

With that I turned my back on the gate and its young guard and headed through the well-lit streets toward the Hyuuga complex. I was extremely tired from running all day, but my sore feet led me swiftly to and through the front door of my house. I closed the door silently, hoping that everyone was already asleep. They were and no one came to investigate. I crept into my bedroom and, changing quickly into a white sleeping yukata, crawled under the covers. I just barely had time to lay my head on the pillow before slipping into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

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- - Translations - -

Konbanwa -- "Good Evening"

Oyasumi (nasai) -- "Good night (formal)"

Chunin -- 2nd level of ninja

Anata ni mo -- "Same to you"

Sleeping Yukata -- a kimono-like garment; Japanese sleepwear

There you go folks! Chapter two! It took me almost six hours, but I did it!

Please review! It means a great deal to me!

See you next chapter!

--

Mistress of the Wolf Clan


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